


Everybody finds their first love at sixteen

by secondverse



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 22:04:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9092530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondverse/pseuds/secondverse
Summary: [DRABBLE] Ranma doesn’t believe teenage boys get feelings at that age. Akane reminds him, amidst laundry duty. (Older!RanmaxAkane: A quick peek into a day in their lives for a slice of normalcy.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> September 2017 would mark the 30th anniversary of the first **Ranma 1/2** serialized chapter, and that got me thinking about how, if we were to account for the years, Ranma and Akane would have been in their mid-forties by then, and probably married some twenty-plus years. I've been rereading the **Ranma 1/2** _manga_ for the better part of the last year, and being reminded of this fact got me craving for Older!RanmaxAkane fics, but sadly found none to my liking, even in the archives of 90’s sites that I remembered poring through as a preteen. So I decided to write one myself (which is essentially the result of giving in to the plot bunny that just wouldn’t leave me alone).
> 
> This actually is an idea for a one-page _doujinshi_ , but as collaboration with the artist is still in the works, I thought I’d post it here first. This is just a short imagined scene in their marriage—a day in the life that provides the backdrop for a quiet, domestic romance, if you will, between just the two of them (I want to believe they would be getting more of that and less of the Nerima craziness as they matured)—so things should be a little different. However, I guess there are some things don’t really change.

******i.**

“Hey, Akane,” Ranma said, casually picking up the _manga_ volume lying carelessly on the living room coffee table. “You seen this?”

Akane took a step back, an armload of laundry in tow, and peeked over her shoulder at the doorway. “What is it?”

“It’s a magical girl romance story,” Ranma said, flipping through the pages and making a face. “Is this what kids today are reading?”

Akane continued talking to her husband, but went into the adjacent laundry room. “It’s not a big deal,” she called out. “All teenage girls—your youngest daughter included—read that kind of stuff.”

“I mean,” Ranma clarified, “have you _actually_ read it?”

“Well, not that one, no. What’s so bad about it?” A thought crossed her mind, and she stood on the living room doorway again, one hand on her hip, and her son’s shirt to be folded in the other. “Anything explicit? That _would_ be alarming. But if that were the case, she wouldn’t leave that lying around.”

“No, nothin’ like that,” he grumbled. He was still thumbing through the slim volume. “It’s just that… it’s so unrealistic!”

Akane laughed. “Oh please, Ranma. It’s _shoujo manga_.” She went back to the other room. 

“Wait, hear me out,” Ranma said defensively, following his wife into the laundry room. She was folding her older daughter’s cotton skirt when he shoved a page onto her face. “Look. They show girls with nothin’ but love on their heads and hearts for eyes, they go to school but are only really after that one guy, they look like they care for nothin’ else but been’ cute, their uniforms and heroine costumes are waaaay too short—“

“Seriously, were you born yesterday? It’s not as if _manga_ girls were drawn like this just today.”

“Well, yeah, but—" Ranma flipped to another page, “OK, get a load of this character, the hero-slash-love interest.” He pointed to a panel. “Read that.”

“‘I can no longer deny what I feel for you, Chōko-chan’,” Akane obeyed, as she set aside the smaller pillowcases. “‘I…I’ve been in love with you since the day you picked up the magical locket. I just can’t stand by and let Ryu-kun take you away from me.’” She looked at Ranma. “That’s sweet. What’s the problem?”

Ranma was practically red with indignation, to Akane’s amusement. “Don’cha see? That’s so not right! No sixteen-year-old boy talks like that! They don’t get feelings like that at sixteen!” 

Akane looked at him, one eyebrow cocked and a smirk on her lips. “Oh, really?” _Maybe_ you _couldn’t say them when_ you _were sixteen…_

Ranma closed the _tankoubon_ and threw up his hands. “Yeah, really! Boys at that age don’t go off spoutin’ spiels on true love. They’re probably just into _pachinko,_ or video games, or— or—.”

 _Or are too engrossed in martial arts combat and accumulating fiancées,_ Akane silently finished, maybe a little tartly. But it _was_ funny that Ranma actually knew absolutely _nothing_ about normal teenage boys and their interests. “Oh, please, Ranma,” she said, turning her attention back to a pile of handkerchiefs, “everybody falls in love for the first time at sixteen.”

“Why, did you?”

Akane’s busy hands stilled at that. She slowly raised her head at him, a strange smile on her face. 

“What?” Ranma fought a sudden urge to blush.

Akane lifted a basket full of their children’s clothes—ready for distribution to their respective bedrooms—and planted a kiss on Ranma’s cheek on her way out. “Oh, I think I did,” she said, teasingly. “He was brash and insensitive and put his foot in his mouth most of the time, but I loved him just the same.”

 

 

**ii.**

Ranma took a second to let that sink in, then followed her out, his cheeks still red. “Hey, that’s not true. Dr. Tofu was your first love,” he persisted, for the sake of argument. He caught up to her and took the basket from her, plopping the _manga_ volume on top. 

“He was my first _crush_ , not first love,” Akane corrected him.

“So it’s really me, huh?” He said, smugly, with a grin to match. 

But then Akane smiled in _that_ way—the one that sent Ranma’s heart beating furiously, every time, even after twenty years of marriage. She tiptoed to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders. “Yes, you dummy. Of course it’s you.”  She kissed him briefly but soundly on the lips. “You can be the densest guy in Japan sometimes.”

Ranma smiled as she stepped back. “Just checkin’.” 

They entered their youngest daughter’s room, and Ranma set the basket on the bed. Akane went to the closet and started putting the clothes where they should be, when Ranma stepped up behind her and wrapped strong arms around Akane’s waist. “Ya know, come to think of it,” he said huskily into her ear, “I guess I _did_ fall in love with an uncute tomboy when I was sixteen.” He playfully nipped at her neck lightly. “S’far as I was concerned, a violent macho chick with a mallet wasn’t really my type. But I guess she won me over.” 

“You’re still such a jerk,” Akane answered, a smile in her voice. 

“I just said the opposite of everything I really felt,” he replied, truthfully, his fingers now skimming her hips lightly. “Being engaged out of your will does that to ya.”

Akane placed finished placing the socks in the proper drawer and turned around, still in his embrace. “But we did all right, didn’t we?” she asked, her voice quiet, her eyes serious. 

Ranma smiled. _Trust her to get all sentimental, just like that._ He gently pecked her on the nose. “Yeah, ‘course we did.”

“Curse and all?”

“Curse an’ all.”

Akane smiled again, and Ranma bent down to give her a long kiss.

 

 

**iii.**

When they parted, Akane ran a finger down his chest. “The kids won’t be home for another hour,” she said in a low voice, one eyebrow raised suggestively. “You can remind me just how well we turned out in this marriage.”

“Mmmm,” Ranma said, “be happy to.”

“Then you better help me with the laundry.” 

 Ranma laughed as Akane made her way quickly over to the next room. He dropped the manga on his daughter’s desk before exiting. _Shoujo manga romance ain’t got nothin’ on the real thing._


End file.
